What got you into Vaping?

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DaveP

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I was surfing the net one day in early 2010 and ran across an infomercial video about people who had quit smoking without trying using a revolutionary product called the "electronic cigarette". It was a video story about a lady reporter who was trying to expose what she thought was a rip off scam. She wore a spy cam and enrolled in the program where they signed you up and provided the ecig and the cartridges for a monthly charge. All you had to do is give them your credit card number. :facepalm: Long story short, she started using their electronic cigarette and found that she hardly smoked at all as long as she had her ecig. Several of her colleagues at the TV station tried it and quit, also.

I started Googling around, discovered ECF, and found out about ecigs. I ordered a Joye 510 and some juice from an ECF registered supplier and the rest is history.
 
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phonedude

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Saw them in a tobacco shop where I bought my tobacco. Figured they were a scam and probably real expensive.

Few weeks later a friend came by and mentioned he had used one at a mutual friends house and it satisfied his craving for a cigarette.

That was all I needed to hear. When he left I went to my tobacco shop and bought one.

Never looked back.

:)
 

Danbrooks2k

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After watching a friend of the family Die of cancer and COPD I was looking for a way to quit smoking.

I transported a patient who wrecked his motorcycle. he told me about vaping. He was unable to even ride his motorcycle 3 years earlier because of respiratory problems. I saw his chest x-ray from 3 years prior when he was hospitalized for a respiratory infection and COPD.

I bought a cig-a-like that night and immediatley started cutting back and looking for something good enough so I could quit.
 

glointhedark

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My daughter and I had quit smoking "cold turkey" around 8 (almost 9) years ago. The desire to smoke was still there, but we worked through it. Around 3 years ago, the cravings and stress were getting to the point where smoking seemed to be really desirable. My daughter had heard somewhere about ecigs. We looked around. We hemmed and hawed. She finally picked up a couple of Blu disposables, and that was it. The disposables showed us that it is possible to continue to be ex-smokers while satisfying the cravings and taming the stress to manageable levels. We have not looked back. We went from cigalikes with refillable to cartos to Evods. We have several eliquid vendors that we enjoy. We found something to tame the monster, and we are enjoying every minute of the experience.
 

HecticEnergy

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Saw an ad online for Blu. Did some research and bought it as I needed to quit smoking (who doesn't?). I quit with Blu, then a few weeks or month later I quit Blu because it was such a hassle. A year or so after that I moved from Utah to Texas to be closer to family. During the stressful transition my cravings kicked up full bore as everyone in Texas seemed to smoke, including the people we moved in with. I still had the Blu, but it wasn't cutting it. I googled "better than blu," found pbusardo and he and other youtube videos / forums walked me through getting THE RIGHT ego setup. I thought I needed the cigarette form factor with the 'auto' switch, but new the output wouldn't keep me off cigarettes for long.
 

empteeteacup

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These are some seriously awesome "quit the stinkies" stories. Good for everyone here :)

My story's a bit less interesting. I bought my mom a Halo Triton tank starter kit for Christmas to help her get away from smoking analogs, which she had picked up again after 26 years due to massive stress from going back to school and separating from my dad. She loved it, and I was looking for a substitute for my hookah, which I had trashed in a rage after burning a hole in my kitchen counter with a coal. I bought myself a starter kit as well, and some juices from Good Life Vapor.
 

Steven G

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My longtime fishing partner has been vaping for a few years and we often talked about it. I smoked cigars and my disabled daughter smoked 2 to 3 PAD, then came the Heart procedure and I knew I had to quit. After 3 months I weakened and bought a few cigars my daughter and I were talked and expressed interest in vaping so I talked to my fishing buddy about setups,the next day we stopped at at vape store I had seen. We left the store my daughter with an EGO starter setup and I with Vision Spinner ll topped with a Nautilus tank.
 

RipTodd

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I had been smoking for 20 years, tried quitting several times. Gum, patch, once for probably 6 months. But with analogs, there's zero leeway. You can't say, "well I'll just have one or two in the morning" because one or two eventually turns into a pack or more a day. The funny thing is that I never really enjoyed smoking. Embarrassing, but honestly all I was doing was giving my money away and ruining my health.

On a whim, I bought a Vuse starter kit at a convenience store on October 21, 2014. As nasty as they are, and as lousy as the device is, I quit on the spot. About a week later, I walked into a B&M and said, "ok, this did the trick, but I know I can do better. Can you help?" And they did.

I can honestly say, I have zero desire to go back to smoking. I have not had a single craving for an analog since late October.
 

Jockamo

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Necessity. I trip to Disney forced me to find an alternative. I did try various methods to quit years ago. Chantix was horrible and the gums/ patches did nothing for me.
I was shocked at how long I could go between smoking with that little logic 24mg. Shortly after I got home I dove head first into vaping and never looked back. It's embarrassing that I was dreading a trip to Disney World because I couldn't smoke. So glad to be done with that.
 

HecticEnergy

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Necessity. I trip to Disney forced me to find an alternative. I did try various methods to quit years ago. Chantix was horrible and the gums/ patches did nothing for me.
I was shocked at how long I could go between smoking with that little logic 24mg. Shortly after I got home I dove head first into vaping and never looked back. It's embarrassing that I was dreading a trip to Disney World because I couldn't smoke. So glad to be done with that.

Now it's the "Can I vape here?" game :) I forget I can't vape anywhere - but I usually don't roll with my fog machine out in public out of respect for others :)
 

HecticEnergy

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Yeah Ieave the fogger at home. I take the Russian on an istick out with me. Very stealthy when it needs to be.

Mines a 4nine clone in 18350 with kayfun lite plus v2 with short tank on it. Fits just right in my hand. My sister-in-law saw me taking a hit and said, "are you sucking on your hand??" lol I suppose it does look odd :)
 

rideronthistrain

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1-1 1/4 PAD smoker for 40 years. Have wanted to quit for a long time but frankly I just couldn't. Gum etc did not work for me and I could never get through a day w/o an analog. Over the past 6 months the urge to quit smoking grew and I started seeing all these Vape shops pop up in my city. Started hearing about how people quit via this method. I then examined why I smoked aside from the addiction of nicotine. When I looked honestly at myself I realized several things. First, living alone provided me no support system. Home and car became my haven for smoking since on a real level I couldn't smoke in public or on the job. Another key was that everyone I knew who quit smoking via another method put on a lot of weight and having a thyroid issue I feared gaining weight. One of the other keys I identified was that I truly enjoyed the act of smoking, drawing in something into my mouth. A true stress reliever.

While I'd been thinking about it, I hadn't done anything about it. Then on January 3rd, on a whim, I stopped into a Vape shop and bought a Smoov battery with a Kanger Evod 2 tank along with full menthol juice. I spoke with two women customers who both quit analogs via vaping. They both said the most important thing was commitment, you had to want to quit.

OK, it's only day 6 but in the past six days I found that first I was able to cut down by more than half of what I was smoking. I set times for when I'd allow myself an analog but admittedly I thought about when my next analog was all of the time. But then I'd light the analog and it didn't taste as good anymore. By day 3 I stopped obsessing about it so much and cut down to 4 analogs, then 3 analogs and yesterday I smoked one analog in the morning and haven't had one since.

So, today is my quit date. I'm determined to quit for good. But I have no intention of decreasing the 18ml juice any time soon. I want to be off the analogs for at least 6 months before I try ratcheting down the nicotine. I did pick up a couple flavors of juice and seem to switch back and forth between full menthol and the flavors. The Vape shop I used does mix it's own and added light menthol to the flavors which I really like. BTW....I'm retired and only work a seasonal job at a riding center for the disabled (horses) and we've had some really nasty weather over the past two days which has kept me at home yet I was able to knock off the analogs during this stressful time of being home alone which normally would trigger some chain smoking. I'm optimistic that I'm done for good with the analogs. I'm still having cravings but they are controllable and I'm not obsessing about them. When I think of having an analog I just vape.
 

DingerCPA

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Was meeting with a client (about 4-1/2 years ago) and he was puffing some blue raspberry-smelling something or other that looked like it was coming from a cigarette. My first introduction to cigalikes. Went out to the website from where he'd gotten his and ordered a kit. Bleh. Didn't like the cartridges, didn't like the short battery life, and the cigalike was heavier then my Camels.

'Bout a year later, was going to be traveling and not able to smoke for real, so I bundled up the kit and took it with. Was o.k., but as soon as I got home, bought a pack of smokes and "carried on"

Two years after that, I watched my favorite Uncle get consumed by lung cancer (he, a 55+ year pipe smoker.) About six months after that, decided to explore a little more and found ECF/Spinners/EVOD tanks/bottled juices, etc., and haven't smoked a cigarette in 10 months.

I now make my own coils and juice and couldn't be happier with my choice. Is vaping completely safe? - I don't know that answer. Is vaping less harmful than smoking? - I'd like to think so because I'm no longer hacking up a lung every morning, my clothes and my car don't smell like a dirty ashtray, and I don't watch a cold turn into bronchitis (often requiring breathing treatments to combat.)

rider - congrats :)
 

Niten13

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My GF hated that I smoked Cigs but she loved me anyways and I have to give her credit for staying with me for 3 years while I was a smoker, Smelly and not very Tasty. So one day I picked up a cheap Blu Cigalike so I could smoke inside and not have to worry about it (I was still smoking cigs regularly). One day I was hanging out with her brother who worked at a smoke shop and was using an Itaste and Protank, he let me take a couple puffs off of it and bam I was at his shop the next day buying a cheap Ego Mini starter kit. Of course that didn't last long, soon it was evod tank on a Ego Mega, then Iclear 30b (worst thing ever IMO) then Dripper. Grabbed a mech mod a couple weeks later and started Building, and now I have my Setup for all day.

IPV3, Tohb V2, Fogger5, KFL, Magma, and the Silverplay is on the way :)

Happy Vaper here :vapor:
 

MsShona

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I was a light, "social" smoker for more than a decade. I wasn't looking to quit really. But I didn't like how I had picked up on the frequency of my smoking (went from a pack a week to about a pack every 3 days). I was annoyed at things like the smell...ashes....the periodic sore throat in the mornings...and of course the money it was costing. But I didn't feel a pressing need to quit.

My boyfriend also wasn't looking to quit his pack a day habit. However his job had him working overnights in a warehouse. And it was a pain to go out and smoke...especially in the wintertime. He picked up some of the Njoy disposables after a co-worker let him take a drag. He liked the convenience of it. However they were pricey...and they would barely last and entire shift. He was still buying regular smokes as well. So he gave it up over practical purposes. I was still not interested myself...but I did get some first hand exposure to the concept that way.

Several people at my new job (I work in a 50 floor office building in a city) vape. I found their setups (mods, tanks, upgraded batteries, etc.) more intriguing than the disposable Njoys my BF had. However I tried to research on my own and felt completely overwhelmed. Then I received a coupon for a free Vuse kit. Since it wouldn't cost me anything, I picked up the menthol kit, and while it was tough going at first (it was pretty hard on my throat, and pretty strong overall in terms of flavor and what not), I really preferred it to smoking cigarettes. No smell, cheaper in the long run, no ashes or lighter to fiddle with. Yep...I was digging it! :2cool:

But I knew that I wanted more options in terms of juice flavors and nicotine levels. That's when I found out that my boyfriend's brother had switched to vaping. He referred a B&M vape shop for me to go to, and the rest has been history! :D

If you would like to read a more long-winded, better written version of my vaping story, feel free to check out this piece that I wrote on Medium. :vapor:
 
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